Editor's note: The full names of the victims in this series are withheld to protect their identity. Full names only appear for those who've publicly identified themselves as a trafficking victim through books or documentaries.

Louisiana has some of the best anti-trafficking laws in the nation — but a lack of funding and enforcement seriously undercuts their power.

With recently passed laws such as House Bill 49 in 2012 and Senate Bill 88 in 2013, Louisiana has made its biggest improvements in criminalizing child sex trafficking, stiffening criminal penalties and adding protection and services for victims.

“We have statutes that address every realm of human trafficking, and we’ve carved out special provisions for our children,” said Katherine Green, a Baton Rouge lawyer and formerBaton Rouge Human Trafficking Task Force chairwoman. “There are still some people who don’t realize that human trafficking is an issue, but we have come very far since 2003-04.”

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Louisiana has passed some of the best anti-trafficking laws in the nation, but the state's service providers say there is very little funding attached to enact those laws.
(Lex Talamo)

Current criminal provisions for those who traffic children carry five to 50 years of imprisonment, fines of up to $75,000, mandatory asset forfeiture and registry as a sex offender, with additional penalties for traffickers who use the Internet.

Louisiana has a lower “burden of proof” than other states: those who buy underage children for sex are punished regardless of whether they know the child’s true age. .

But State Sen. Ronnie Johns, R- Lake Charles, said the state still has a long way to go in passing legislation that will make an impact.

“Over the course of the last four years, we have been recognized as having some of the best laws in the state,” Johns said. “The problem comes with enforcement.”

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State Sen. Ronnie Johns has sponsored three current pieces of legislation that will address human trafficking.(Photo: Henrietta Wildsmith/The Times)

A lack of state-appropriated resources has created a number of unfunded mandates and multiple state agencies seeking out alternative funding to meet the laws' demands.

Other needed areas of improvement include strengthening protections for child trafficking victims and amending the language in several pieces of legislation that create unnecessary impediments for those trying to identify and help sex trafficking victims.

A lack of funding

A 2013 analysis by the Washington D.C. nonprofit Polaris Project found increased funding and mandates for law enforcement were major areas where the state's legislation could improve.

Some federal money was granted to the Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement — $250,000 for 2014-15 and $155,000 for 2015-16 — to develop human trafficking training material.

Certain law enforcement agencies also have received federal funds for human trafficking efforts: Jefferson Parish Sheriff's office, for example, received a $600,000 grant to be spread out over three years.

But most police departments and sheriff's offices have to pull funds from their overall budgets.

Caddo Parish Sheriff's office is among them.

Cindy Chadwick, spokeswoman for CPSO, compared the cost of training the deputies received to the salary for 20 deputies.

"Everything was on duty. They would have been paid the same whether they were at training or performing another job-related task," Chadwick wrote in an email.

Louisiana State Police Lt. Chad Gremillion said the Special Victims unit, established in 2014 to focus on recovering trafficking victims, and its 13-member staff were all funded by the state police's overall budget, as well.

The Louisiana legislature responded by passing 2014's Act 564, which required the Department of Children & Family Services to compile an annual report about the scope of human trafficking in Louisiana.

The department put out its most recent report in February. But they received no funding from the state to meet the mandates.

“There was no funding attached to any of them,” said DCFS child welfare consultant Walter Fahr. “We were on our own.”

Alternate funds came to the department in 2015 in the form of a $1.3 million grant — to be spread out over the next five years — from the Louisiana Children's Anti-Trafficking Initiative after DCFS applied jointly in 2014 with the Baton Rouge-based nonprofit Healing Place Serve.

That money has helped DCFS with several of its main objectives, including collecting the required data on the scope of trafficking in the state and also providing specialized foster care homes for child trafficking victims.

But the department is concerned about what will happen when the grant money runs out in September 2019.

"Ongoing funding is going to be an issue," Fahr said. "With our annual report to the Louisiana legislature on human trafficking and the report requirements on data for juvenile sexual trafficking, there will begin to be the basis for justification of funding for juvenile trafficking services."

Strengthening protections for child victims

The second area of improvement identified by Polaris Project is related to immunity for child victims.

Only six states — Illinois, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina, Tennessee and Vermont — grant full immunity to child victims.

Louisiana is a Safe Harbor state — meaning children involved in the sex industry should not be convicted as criminals because they can't legally consent to paid sexual acts.

But in the state's history, children have been charged with prostitution and traffickers have been charged with lesser offenses — such as 'inciting prostitution' or 'racketeering' — when teen victims are involved.

One such case involved the Bossier Parish couple Randell and Brandi White and the two teen girls — ages 14 and 16 — who were reported to have been prostituted from the couple's Elm Grove home.

The girls faced prostitution charges because investigators discovered they had lied about their ages and accepted money in exchange for sex. The Whites faced a charge of 'inciting prostitution.'

In a May 2016 case, Larry Bluitt trafficked a 14-year-old girl into northwest Louisiana from Dallas with the purpose of prostituting her from a Shreveport hotel. Bluitt was sentenced with one count of "transportation of a minor with intent to engage in prostitution."

Prosecutors on the case dropped a charge of child sex trafficking.

"There haven't been many prosecutions under our general human trafficking statute," said Green, the Baton Rouge lawyer. "We have great laws and tools, but it's the prosecutor and the district attorney who have to make that decision."

Legislative impediments to law enforcement and nonprofits

While the sentencing of arrested traffickers and "pimps" is up to the district attorneys and judges, law enforcement agencies face a second challenge: They have to prove "force, fraud, or coercion" to meet the legal definition of human trafficking for those 18 and older.

That can be difficult when many victims identify more with their trafficker than they do with law enforcement, Gremillion said.

“One of the hardest things is getting these victims to say, ‘I’ve been trafficked. I’ve been forced,'" Gremillion said. "If we can’t prove that, then it’s hard to arrest someone or get an indictment on human trafficking.”

Beth Salcedo, who co-founded the state's only safe house for children, said it took two years for her and her husband to meet the rigid licensing requirements.

“You have to have sprinklers, you even have to be able to check the temperature of the children’s food,” Salcedo said. “There are very few homes in the United States that are safe homes for children because it’s run like a hospital.”

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The Free Indeed Home in the Greater New Orleans area is the state's only safe house for child victims of sex trafficking.(Photo: Henrietta Wildsmith/The Times)

Jeff Bayhi, a priest who is working toward construction of another safe house for children called the Metanoia house, said provisions in current law are not specific to human trafficking victims.

"They're trying to license against a person of ill will who might use this new format to do things that are not in the best interest of children. They're not trying to license against us," Bayhi said. "That still doesn't mean there aren't a lot of hurdles, but we're dealing with it. We're trying to get there."

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Father Jeff Bayhi and three nuns from the Hospitaler Sisters of Mercy are trying to open a second safe home for child victims of trafficking in Louisiana.(Photo: Henrietta Wildsmith/The Times)

Louisiana has three bills before the Legislature sponsored by Sen. Ronnie Johns that target human trafficking — and in particular, the impediments mentioned by law enforcement and nonprofits.

SB 90 would raise the age from 18 to 21 in proving force, fraud or coercion. The bill passed through the House May 16. It's awaiting the governor's signature.

SB 397 would allow for the licensing of specialized homes for trafficking victims. The bill passed through the House Health and Welfare committee May 17 and is headed to the full House floor.

SB 468 would raise the threshold age of dancers in strip clubs from 18 to 21. The bill was passed this week by the House and is being considered by the Senate.

Johns said:

About SB90: "We've recognized that there are young women, and in some cases young men, who are caught up in human trafficking over the age of 18, so we're going to take that threshold now to 21 years old."

About SB 397: "We have different types of licenses out there for certain types of homes and shelters, but none of them specifically address the needs of a victim of human trafficking. We're going to take the licensing aspect of it through state regulatory agencies to a whole different level. We will probably be one of the first states in the United States to do this, and we're very proud of that. "

About SB 468: "Many times our state police has found those involved in human trafficking, they're forced into these certain venues of strip clubs throughout the state, so that would be very important if we would take that threshold to 21."

Johns said a state's laws show its priorities — and he wants Louisiana to send a clear message.

"We're going to take it to a whole different level now," Johns said. "Gov. John Bel Edwards has met with our group. He's very supportive of what we're doing, and we will be very successful by the time we end the session on June 6 of having three major pieces of legislation to address human trafficking."

BY THE NUMBERS: How we compare to the nation

Louisiana is:

1 of 14 states that allow law enforcement to use wiretapping in investigations

1 of 18 states that have passed Safe Harbor Laws

1 of 20 states with laws allowing for the creation of a human trafficking task force

1 of 21 states that post information about the National Human Trafficking hotline number

1 of 26 states that enacted statutes specifically defining force, fraud or coercion in terms of human trafficking

1 of 29 states that allow victims to pursue civil remedies against their traffickers

1 of 29 states that enacted statutes specifically about those who facilitate sex trafficking

1 of 36 states with statutory provisions for asset forfeiture

1 of 42 states with lower burden of proof in sex trafficking of minor cases